It seems that ElectriFly has been on a roll lately in coming out with nostalgic racers from the years past. First was the Mr. Mulligan followed by the Cosmic Wind and now we are presented with the unmistakable looks of the Gee Bee R-1.

The Gee Bee was designed by the Granville brothers some 80 odd
years ago and carried some unique features such as a fuselage which
acted as an airfoil, an rearward positioned cockpit and carried the
largest and most powerful engine of its day.

The ElectriFly rendition of this airframe seems to stay true to its
scale lines and looks of the original and promises outstanding
performance. Equipped with a brushless power system and four micro
servos, all that is required to get this Gee Bee in the air is a
receiver and a 3S 2200mAh flight battery.

So lets put one together, take it out to the field and see what she is capable of...

Inside
the box, you will find the fuselage, wing, horizontal stabilizer and
the rest of components securely wrapped and taped down.

With
only a few components, the Gee Bee should be ready in no time at all.

ElectriFly Gee Bee R-1 EP RxR

Price: $159.99

Key
Features

Smooth and predictable sport performance

Simple, fast, no-glue assembly

Brushless motor, ESC and 4 micro servos installed

Overview

The
Gee Bee's unusual fuselage design acts as an airfoil, allowing the
plane to make smooth "knife edge" turns without losing altitude. With
foam construction and a brushless electric power system and 4 micro
servos already in place, this Receiver-Ready replica of the famous
pylon racer can be turning heads and drawing attention at the field
within minutes after installing your radio of choice and battery!

Specs

Wingspan:

38.5
in (980 mm)

Length:

27 in (685 mm)

Flying
Weight:

1.75-2.0 lb (790-970 g)

Wing
Area:

241 in2 (15.5 dm2)

Wing
Loading:

16.7-19.1
oz/ft2 (51-58 g/dm2)

Suggested Battery:

11.1V 2200mAh LiPo Battery

One
of the first things that will grab your attention is the magnetically
sealed access hatch on the top of the fuselage. The magnets are very
powerful and it does take a little bit of force to get the hatch off,
but they should help in making sure that the hatch does not fly off
during flight. The cowl is held on with four powerful magnets as well.
The motor is already mounted to a black painted wood motor box and all
that remains is to attach the provided propeller. The motor mount also
houses six large ball bearings which help to add weight to the nose of
the Gee Bee to get the C.G. on spot. The distinctive rear cockpit is
decorated with a pilot which helps in completing the look of the sleek
Gee Bee.

One
of the advertised features of the Gee Bee R-1 RxR are the magnetic
wheel pants. the idea behind the magnets is to allow the wheel pants to
pop loose in the event of a rough landing. The tail gear comes
pre-attached and is connected to the rudder via a small L shaped
connector. The horizontal stabilizer connects to the fuselage using
four magnets eliminating the need for glue. The two elevator halves are
connected using a small carbon fiber stick.

The
wing is a single piece and comes with the aileron servos installed and
connected to the horns. The wing is attached to the fuselage with a
single bolt. The cowl features a nice mock radial engine and is spaced
perfectly to accept the provided propeller. All that is left for the
modeler to do is to bolt everything together and install the optional
flying wires.

Manual

The
Gee Bee R-1 RxR manual is detailed in describing the short assembly
process and provides the recommended control throws and the C.G.
location.

The
assembly starts by installing the horizontal stabilizer on to the
fuselage by simply inserting the halves together until the magnets
engage.

Once the stabilizer is on the fuselage, the control connection to the elevator is made.

I
installed an Futaba R617FS receiver in the recommended location using
double sided tape and made the connections to the elevator and the
rudder servos. The wires can be routed under the battery tray for a
clean installation.

Futaba 8FG Super

Overview

The
original 8FG was already the best 2.4GHz radio value available. Now,
for the same cost, the 8FG Super offers six additional channels  plus
new software with menus tailored to Futaba's super-fast CGY750 gyro.
Recommended by Bobby Watts, Matt Botos and Kyle Stacy, it's the first
radio that really supports flybarless helicopters. And it's perfect for
all other applications, too...a smart choice for ANY forward-looking
flier.

Key
Features

Expanded with 14 total transmitter channels  12 proportional and two switched.

Included
R6208SB receiver's PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) channels support up to
8 standard analog or digital servos  and it handles up to 18 channels
when used with an S.Bus system.

Gyro menu supports 3-axis gyros and is perfectly tailored to the CGY750.

Accepts 32MB to 2GB SD memory cards*  add as much memory as you want.

The
main landing gears are installed to the bottom of the wing by simply
inserting them until the magnets engage. With both gears installed, the
wing can be attached to the fuselage and bolted in place using a single
nylon bolt.

I
used the provided Velcro to prepare the battery area and tightened the
elevator and rudder connectors after making sure all the surfaces were
centered. The cowl can then be installed and the propeller attached to
the motor shaft.

The
optional flying wires are installed next by routing the provided silver
elastic thread through the holes in the wing, fuselage and wheel
pants. Four spreader bars are provided to complete the look of
the flying wires. I would recommend to check your C.G. and add/remove
any weight before you install the flying wires as the wires are right
over the C.G. point and can get in the way of your C.G machine. With
the battery installed in the forward position, I did not have to add
any weight to the Gee Bee as it balanced within the recommended range.

I
really like the looks of the Gee Bee but admit that I was nervous about
the maiden flight knowing the infamous landing characteristics of Gee
Bees in general. For the maiden flight we headed out to Tom Bass park
in Houston with two Gee Bees. One with the optional flying wires
installed and one without. After installing the battery and checking
the control surfaces, we experimented with the ground characteristics
only to find that the provided tail wheel does not allow for tight
turns and that the Gee Bee likes to turn into the wind which became a
challenge to avoid tipping the Gee Bee on the ground with the cross
wind condition that existed that day.

After
I lined up the Gee Bee on the runway and applied power, the tail
quickly came off the ground and the Gee Bee lifted off in an uneventful
manner. Once in the air, I had to apply a few clicks of trim to get her
to fly level. After performing a few circuits, I started to enjoy the
nice sport flying characteristics that the Gee Bee had to offer. The
provided power system pulls the Gee Bee around pretty quickly and with
authority through big rolls and loops. As advertised, the Gee Bee with
its fuselage acting as a airfoil can perform some nice knife edge
passes which to my amazement did not exhibit much coupling from the
rudder. Inverted flight required a little down elevator to be held to
maintain level flight but that is to be expected.

I
did not see any nasty habits that you would expect from a short coupled
aircraft in turns but was constantly paying attention to my stall speed
as I kept the speed up during my flight. The Gee Bee looks especially
nice when performing full speed low passes over the runway with nice
long rolls mixed in. The rudder is capable of pulling the Gee Bee
through stall turns and is very effective in coordinated turns. The
roll rate was on par which what you would expect from a sport airplane.

Now
for the interesting part, the landings. For my first landing, I lined
up the Gee Bee while maintaining a little power to make sure I did not
stall and the Gee Bee flew in over the runway and settled on the mains,
rolled for a long while and settled the tail and came to a stop without
tipping over or scraping the wings. I was telling my self that this was
too easy and had to be a fluke which turned out to be somewhat true. On
later flights, both me and David had some trouble keeping the Gee Bee
from toppling over (as is evident from the quick fadeout in the flight
video) as we tried to apply some down pressure on landing gear on
touch down with the elevator to make sure the Gee Bee did not drag a
wing or bounce back up. On one landing, I must have hit the mains a
little harder than expected as the magnetic wheel pants came off on one
side and were dangling from under the wing as I aborted the landing and
tried to come around for another pass which was an exciting experience
to say the least.

Check
out the video to
see her in action!

ElectriFly Gee Bee R-1

(Pilots, Stills & Video: Burc
Simsek
and
David Smith)

The
Gee Bee is a great looking replica of the 1930s racer and should
provide the scale and sport enthusiast with a nice small sized airframe
that is easy to transport and fly. You need to be sure that you are up
for the task of landing the Gee Bee as this is not an airframe for the
beginner and might even give intermediate pilots a run for their money
which also made me realize that I probably have been flying helis and
3D airframes a little too long and might benefit from practicing a few
more landings with short coupled airframes. Once in the air, the Gee
Bee flies great and can perform almost any sport maneuver that you can
throw at it. I was very pleased with its capability to perform nice
knife edge passes with minimal coupling. The recommended 3S2200mAh
should be common place in most modelers inventories and provides a good
flight time upwards of 6-7 minutes depending on throttle usage.

Overall,
I think that the Gee Bee R-1 RxR delivers on the advertised features
and performance claims and will make a good addition to the ElectriFly
lineup of sport/scale airframes.

The comments, observations and conclusions made in this review are solely with respect to the particular item the editor reviewed and may not apply generally to similar products by the manufacturer. We cannot be responsible for any manufacturer defects in workmanship or other deficiencies in products like the one featured in the review.